Anti-toxic tobacco smoking device



A ril 15, 1958 CHIA T. CHENG 3 ANTI-TOXIC TOBACCO SMOKING DEVICE Filed July 14, 1955 INVENTOR. CHEA T. QHENG United States Patent" l ANTI-TOXIC TOBACCO SMOKING DEVICE (Ihia '1. Cheng, Taipei, Taiwan, China Application July 14, 1955, Serial No. 522,001:

2 Claims. 01. 131-494 The present invention relates to an antitoxic cigarette holder and an antitoxic pipe.

Recent research appears to indicate that cigarette smoking, or even pipe smoking, may be detrimental to health and may be a contributing factor in lung cancer, gastric ulcer, heart disease, high blood pressure and other ailments. On the other hand, smoking is a soothing habit to many persons, who consequently find it diflicult to give up. It is therefore a desideratum in the art to provide a means for removing or greatly reducing toxic effects of smoking so that those who like to smoke may enjoy doing so with lessened fear of harmful effects to their health.

The toxic effect of smoking appears to be ascribable inter alia to alkaloids, such as nicotine, nicotelline, nornicotine, anabasine and anatabine, which are present in tobacco and which are taken into the human body with the smoke. The intake of such alkaloids must be prevented or greatly reduced, in order to lessen the toxic effects of smoking.

It is a primary object of the present invention to embody means which will prevent or greatly reduce the in take of alkaloids during smoking, by cooling and condensing the alkaloids in the smoke before the latter is inhaled into the human body.

The boiling point of nicotine (which constitutes a substantial part of the alkaloids present in tobacco) is about 475 F., and it is volatile at about 400 F. or higher. The volatile points of other alkaloids present in tobacco are about the same. In consideration of this circumstance, the means provided by the present invention comprises a device whereby the hot volatilized alkaloids passing from the burning tobacco toward the smokers month are sharply cooled and consequently condensed, thereby preventing them from being taken into the body of the smoker.

A feature of the present invention is the novel cooling means which is provided for the said purpose. This cooling means depends upon the heat absorption which is involved in the solution of a crystalline compound, such as sodium sulphate and the like, to form a supersaturated solution. The details of this means will be apparent from the following detailed description of presently-preferred illustrative embodiments of the invention, reference being had in this regard to the accompanying drawings, wherein Fig. 1 is a view partly in section and partly in elevation of a pipe constructed according to the invention, and

Fig. 2 is a partial sectional view through a correspondingly constructed cigarette holder.

Referring first to Fig. 1, reference numeral designates the pipe bowl, made in the usual way of wood or ceramic or other suitable and conventional material. The inner end of the bowl member is threaded to fit, in threaded relation, into interiorly screw-threaded ring 11, which may be made of copper or any other desirable material suitable for constituting a joining ring or ferrule. Threaded into the other side of the ring or ferrule 11 is the pipe stem 12, which may be of the same ma- 2,830,598 Patented Apr. 15, 1958 ice terial as the bowl 10 and which terminates in an essentially conventional manner in a mouthpiece 13. The usual bores are provided so that smoke from tobacco burning in the pipe bowl can be drawn through the stem and mouthpiece.

The interior of the stem 12 is relatively enlarged in character, as shown, so that at the adjacent end of the pipe bowl 110, the bore of which is smaller, there can be provided a shoulder 10 against which an externally peripherally corrugated, elongated hollow container 14 may abut. The container 14 is closed at its forward end, i. e. the end adjacent the aforesaid shoulder. It is pro vided at its other end with a removable closure 15 and, adjacent the latter, with a tightly fitting rubber plug 16. Container 14 and its closure member 15 are preferably made of a good heat-conductive material, advantageously copper or the like. The corrugated character of the wall of the container 14 defines a helical passageway 14' therebetween and the interior of stem 12, the container being positioned in close juxtaposition to the latter.

It will be manifest that smoke drawn from the bowl passes through the stem 12 by way of the helical passageway, i. e. in intimate contact with the extended outer surface of the container 14 which result from the corrugation thereof.

The container 14 does not extend along the entire length of the stem, but terminates short thereof, leaving room for the interposition between the container and the inner end of the stem bore (i. e. the shoulder defined by the narrowing of the latter to form the mouthpiece), of a moisture absorption device comprising, for example, an essentially cylindrical container 17 of plastic material or the like, the end walls of which are perforated at 13 to permit inflow of smoke thereinto and at 19 to permit outflow of smoke therefrom. The container 17 is filled, as shown, with a suitable absorption material, such as borax granules or the like.

According to a characteristic feature of the invention, the container 14 is filled with a supersaturated aqueous solution of a crystalline substance Zii, such advantageously as sodium sulphate. This supersaturated solution, moreover, contains a quantity of crystals of the said substance, over and above that which will completely dissolve therein when the device is not in operation, i. e. when the pipe is not being used.

It will be understood that the solution contained in container 14 may be of any substance which absorbs heat when going into solution under the indicated conditions and which crystallizes out again when cooled. Thus, for example, use may be made of many other substances than sodium sulphate, as for example potassium chloride, potassium bromide, potassium nitrate, sodium nitrate, ammonium nitrate and many others.

When the pipe is being used and the heated smoke, in process of being inhaled, passes from the tobacco in the pipe bowl and in contact with the extended exterior surface of the container 14 containing the said supersaturated solution, the container is heated and, aided by the fact that such container is of good heat conductivity, a part of the hitherto undissolved crystals therein is dissolved, thereby absorbing heat.

When the pipe is not used and the container 14 therein is not heated by the flow of hot smoke thereby, the container and its contents cool off, and part of the dissolved crystalline material crystallizes out again, and the heat previously absorbed is gradually released. The action of the container 14!, housing the supersaturated solution of crystallized compound 26, is self-renewing.

With such a container inside the stem of the pipe, the normal temperature inside the smoke passageway within such stem is constantly maintained at a low temperature. When the smoke passes through the passageway 14, the alkaloids present in the smoke or at least a very substantial part thereof are condensed, leaving in the smoke other materials and substances such as e. g. aromatic plant oils, whose volatile points are much lower than those of the alkaloids and which consequently are not condensed by contact with the cooling container 14, or at least not to the same extent as the alkaloids. In this way, the smoker enjoys the smoke with reduced inhalation of toxic substances.

After the container or cooling tube 14 has been used for a considerable period of time, it may be removed, cleaned and inserted to be used again. The solution contained therein need not be changed as it never comes into direct contact with the toxic substances and it remains just as effective as ever.

The absorber 17, which preferably fits tightly into the interior of the stem 12, absorbs any moisture resulting from the condensation of the nicotine or other toxic substances in the smoke and which may be entrained by the smoke as it leaves the corrugated cooling passageway 14 and passes through perforations 18 on its way to the mouthpiece 13. There is preferably a small space between the containers 14 and 17.

The embodiment according to Fig. 2, primarily designed for use with cigarettes, is fundamentally the same as that according to Fig. 1. Minor changes are involved to adapt the construction to the smoking of cigarettes.

To this end, the shoulder 10 is provided on the forward end of cylindrical adapter 21, which replaces the bowl of the pipe construction and corresponds more especially to the stem portion of the latter. Adapter 21 may be of any suitable material, e. g. plastic, wood, ceramic, metal or the like. It is retained in place by a frontal shell member 22, advantageously of relatively thin metal, the exterior of which may be plated or polished. The shell 22 is internally threaded at its rear end, as shown at 23, whereby it may be secured to stem proper 12. In this position, it retains the adapter 21 in place, as shown on the drawing. The forward end of shell 22v is conically configured and is provided with a rearwardly directed cylindrical fiange 24 of a size to receive a cigarette. When the shell 22 is securely threaded on to stern 12 at 23, the inner edge of flange 24 is tightly abutted against 4 the outer closed, but centrally perforated, end of adapter 21. For the rest, the construction and operation are as described in connection with the pipe embodiment. More especially, the cooling and condensing device 14 is constructed and operates here in the same manner as it does in the pipe embodiment of the invention. The absorbing unit may be included or omitted; this, incidentally, is true also of the first-described embodiment. The front end of the shell member 22 may be configured to receive cigar instead of a cigarette.

The described embodiments are intended to be illustrative'of possible constructions embodying the invention and not at all limitative or restrictive thereof. It will be understood that all the minor details of the construction may be varied while maintaining the essential features of the invention, as hereinafter claimed.

Having thus disclosed the invention, what is claimed is:

l. A cooler condenser of the character described, consisting essentially of a container containing a super-saturated solution of a crystallizable compound which absorbs heat upon going into solution, said solution also containing a quantity of undissolved crystals of said compound, whereby said solution acts as a cooling agent upon tobacco smoke passing in contact with the outer surface of said container through its action of heat absorption and heat release when said surface is in contact and out of contact with said smoke, respectively.

2. A device according to claim 1, wherein the container is essentially cylindrical in configuration and is provided with screw type channels on the exterior surface thereof whereby the effective cooling area of such surface is increased.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 636,293 Schossow Nov. 7, 1899 1,142,998 Turner June 15, 1915 2,063,788 Burke Dec. 8, 1936 2,263,464 Lackow et :al. Nov. 18, 1941 2,580,974 Sutton Jan. 1, 1952 FOREIGN PATENTS 329,739 Germany Nov. 27, 1920 413,661 Great Britain July 18, 1934 

